Thursday, August 20, 2009.

inexplicable bout of sadness hit me today; was staring out at open space during pseudo-break today and thinking of so many things.

sometimes you just want to hold it all together, and when you're left alone, it breaks, shatters. and to know that maybe it isn't really like that, it comforts. though i don't see it.

anyway - spem in alium, thomas tallis.

Labels: friends, Life, Music

{ 8:50 PM }

Tuesday, August 4, 2009.

i believe in miracles.

they do come true, even if you think they don't.

thanks so much for today, thank you all. especially all of you who offered your ear.

and you, when you walked down the stairs, i knew a miracle came true. thank you!

and anyway, hear this! liszt's un sospiro, 3rd of 3 concert etudes:

Labels: friends, Life, Music

{ 10:13 PM }

Sunday, July 5, 2009.

sorry to people out there who have been waiting for some semi-decent post for eons.

so here i go! =D

cts just ended, but that's another matter altogether. never mind =D

3 things that crossed my mind quite recently -

1. it's quite pointless and aimless, to be floundering out there without a teacher. i'm learning stuff all by myself, without any guidance or a LISTENING ear for that matter (my ears, i believe, are badly trained.)

and thus it's QUITE painful, cause i'm completely lost. how to improve, how to know if i have improved, how to keep on becoming better, i have little idea.

and as such i just try new pieces, perhaps out of my ability, just to show that i'm learning. but am i learning the right way? i have ABSOLUTELY no idea, which sucks.

the only consolation - i'm learning/playing pieces i love. which makes it very enjoyable, indeed.

2. i may have completely changed. i guess, i suddenly think a lot more? but i've touched on that countless times, so it's boring to go through the same routine again.

3. when i enter the army, am i better off introducing myself as someone from bishan sec and bishan jc? the stigma associated with that sir thomas stamford guy, it's not something to be proud about at times.

a senior yesterday introduced himself as being from bishan jc. his rationale was that it most probably hurts less compared to introducing yourself as someone from the big R.

is it lonely to be at the top? very, indeed.

that's all for now, before i satisfy my craving for hokkaido food =D

Labels: Life, Music

{ 5:20 PM }

Friday, June 19, 2009.

what, what is the answer to the Unanswered Question?

as you search for the answer, you realise a lot of things.

even as it repeats itself, the eternal question of existence, you think a lot.

memory space.

a place to contemplate. to RE-MEM-BER.

and as you think, think about loss,

love? could it be the answer?

Labels: Life, Music

{ 1:10 AM }

Saturday, May 16, 2009.

this week has been generally kind to me indeed; i dare not say happiest week of this year, but certainly up there.

certainly something that lifted my spirits a lot - thurs' concert. dismal as it may have been (expected, given the time - not as if we could beat that really), the last piece was FANTASTIC, and we went off knowing that $5 was well-spent on one 5-min piece.

but it was beautiful! sibelius sure can write well!

Sibelius' Andante Festivo

Labels: Life, Music

{ 11:46 AM }

Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

I remembered Time's Man of the Year selection for 2006 when I saw this. I thought then when I saw it, that it was dumb, stupid, a waste of space when 2006 brought along much more great people who were more deserving of the award.

Yes, "YOU" were Time's Man of the Year 2006.

"And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. "

Now I finally understood the significance of that choice. I dare say it's one heck of a good choice.

http://www.youtube.com/symphony

It's precisely because of the power of the Internet that's why we even have such a collaboration. Where even in the poorest of regions, in the most desolate of areas, someone with talent, with passion and skill can make his/her way to Carnegie Hall.

It's less of the music than the power of the Internet, really. To be honest his work isn't that great, but I like the whole idea of it, that people around the world perform a work online.

Now, music truly has no borders.

Labels: Music

{ 10:14 PM }

Sunday, December 28, 2008.

i was planning to do either a post on patrick's house and/or a wrap-up on the year 2008 yesterday night, but something else happened which affected me rather much, and because of that i had some problems falling asleep.

there's perhaps a good reason why i like shostakovich so much despite how his music is not easy on the ears (indeed, his VC no.2 is very hard on the ears on 1st listening).

an excerpt from a nice book (Shostakovich: A Life Remembered) i'm reading now:
"But what struck me most was his (Shostakovich's) parting phrase: 'Be yourself. Don't be afraid of being yourself. My wish for you is that you should continue on your own, incorrect way.'" - Sofiya Gubaidulina, composer

Indeed, Shostakovich was really one person who was truly himself, and I admire his 5th symphony, not only for its musical merits, but for his real courage and bravery. There's something blatantly honest about his works (especially his quartets) that just cries out to everyone out there.

Despite the Soviet Party's threats (and defying them usually meant death) he managed to stay true, honest to himself and his own ideologies, not bending down to what others demanded of him and be a lackey of the Party (unlike many other disgusting composers), and produce a wonderful piece of music.

Guess you can read it up here.

Shostakovich is really wonderful, really. A pure soul amidst the evils of society.

Labels: Life, Music

{ 8:04 PM }

Friday, December 5, 2008.

ok seems that i do need to post.

1. i got the RA call, and got chemaff. but that's not the point. seriously. the point is

a- there are 87 slots for both chemaff, so some people who claimed that they screwed up/thought they found it too difficult even when they're from ra and go for some national competition WILL get in i assure you. if you don't get in i'll camp outside rjc ra office tmr with you with my jap textbooks =D

the 2nd point, and the happiest point, is that they will be adopting the standard RI way of grouping classes. There will be the ABCD classes (just that it's more), and within the ABCD classes will be the RA peeps + the godly non-ra peeps. WHICH MEANS, 4B'08 won't disappear! =D=D=D=D=D

ok i'm mad.

2. i see that this long post of mine below (read please!) has garnered quite a lot of views and comments. that's nice. anyway the point was that I have tried out some certain forms of music, and personally I chose classical since I saw weaknesses in pop music, some of them too much for me to bear. Anyway note that many classical pieces are absolute music, meaning that they have no other meaning OTHER than music, so a lot of them don't have love in it (in fact very few have it, besides the odd schubert and schumann etc.).

Just recently got addicted to vaughan williams' symphonies (i love his 5th!) and I read this comment VW had to say with regards to some people's comments that his symphonies had an extra-musical meaning in them:

He says, in the preface to the score of his 6th symphony, that "it never seems to occur to people that a man might want to write just a piece of music."

so, in short, many pieces of classical music have no extra-musical association with it, which indeed pulls people off. but i beg to differ.

case in point #1 - brahms.
look at him, the eternal classicist that believes that liszt and wagner's idea of tone poems/music dramas were crap. he wrote absolute music, or so he said.

now raise your hand if you don't like A SINGLE PIECE OF BRAHMS' MUSIC.

i'll feed klieber's symphony #4 and/or oistrakh/klemperer's violinconcerto and/or gilels/jochum's pianoconcertos and/or oistrakhrostropovich/szell's doubleconcerto to you and see whether you still say no.

i'll feed you to the pigs if you still say no.

=D

to be honest, all forms of music evoke feelings. even if they don't portray something extra-musical (which was supposed to be the case till liszt had to come, but thank him for Don Juan and the Ring =D), and it's just i hear the SAME BLARDY FEELINGS IN 90% of pop music.

i'm sorry nearly every of them talk about love.

whereas in mahler's 9 alone you hear billions of stuff. how life goes to death, then rebirth, then death again, then sardonic humour, then ghostly music, then tender outpouring of love, then acceptance. within that 70+ minutes you hear something you CAN'T ever hear in pop.

that's just clarifying matters.

anyway more healthy discussion please! i'm bored of mugging jap. and anyway DON'T WORRY YOU PEEPS I EXPECT TO SEE YOU IN RA NEXT YEAR OR I WILL COMMIT SUICIDE AND NOT TAKE JLPT ON SUNDAY =D

Labels: Music

{ 9:08 PM }

Thursday, December 4, 2008.

ok breaking apart from my past (x) posts on blogging on events, i have decided to do a little de-stresser ahead of my jlpt 2 (which i will fail anyway.).

constructive criticism always welcome, and NOTE: this is in no way insulting the genre of pop music, merely stating its flaws. hope you give some comments on this post.

a discourse on pop music.

I guess many of the readers of this blog (not much, it seems) would know that the owner of this blog has a, should I say, very intriguing selection of music he listens to. Refer to the right, and you'll see weird names like prokofiev, mahler, whom you perhaps may never have heard of (or do I underestimate my audience?)

I am here not to label everyone else as mad and crazy and that I am the only correct person and that you should all convert to classical-music-ism (do I look Stalinish? =.=). Rather, I am here to defend my reasons for not listening to pop music, and give reasons (not rubbishy ones I hope) for my very intriguing selection of music.

I am a very logical person (sometimes my brain breaks down too, so I am very crazy at times), so I decide on everything after thinking it through carefully. So, if you ever get the (mis)fortune of going out shopping (CDs duh. what else? besides the chem textbooks.) with me, be prepared to kiss goodbye to like, at least 2 hours of your time.

That's why I decided on classical music.

OK to cut the long story short, I was an avid fan of pop music in my early Secondary School days. I remember vividly listening to some Jay Chou piece in Sec 1 and spamming it repeatedly on Youtube (dunno why I never bought one of those albums), and one piece I remember now was Linkin Park's Numb (correct me if I am wrong, because my RAM has been filled with Japanese.)

So, I was as normal as most people are.

I shall continue to shame myself more by announcing to the world that I never cared much for classical music in Sec 1 and 2. It seemed very natural to me then that I would take Japanese (AND STUDY LIKE CRAZY FOR A TEST THIS SUNDAY AND WASTE S$47 SINCE I AM GOING TO FAIL ANYWAY.) over music, but now even that ant crawling over the Mahler score I borrowed weeks ago can even tell that it isn't very natural a decision to make. I didn't know the difference between a symphony and a concerto then (I KNOW I'M DISGRACEFUL. anyway I still can't tell the difference between rachmaninoff's symphony 2 and piano concerto 2, other than the fact that they all sound equally beautiful.)

So, in short, I never cared a hoot about classical music then.

ouch.

Back to topic.

Anyway, now I am, with 20:20:31:01 play time on my iTunes, ALL classical. To be honest, I have not yet given up on pop music, and occasionally I do listen to some (as I would call it, forced listening), especially the ones with a certain meaning to the lyrics (which are mainly absent from classical music). So I do remember stuff like Graduation Day (who doesn't?) and some pop here and there, like Bleeding Love (is it? paiseh.)

Just that unlike many others, I have no copy of pop music in any format at all.

Why?

Maybe before I start, I should give a proper background to pop music. Pop music is perhaps the widest-selling music ever, featuring songs (voice + accompaniment which ranges, mainly piano/drumset/guitars) that are usually less than 10 minutes long, which usually has words which concern themselves with romance and feelings. Stemming in America during the 1940s, it is a genre rooted in rock-n-roll, and features an intro-verse-chorus-verse (with different words)-chorus-verse/chorus-outro format.

Its main purpose is to sell well, meaning catchy tunes, lyrics and rythmns (sometimes) are vital to the success of it. Most importantly, it is POPular, meaning that it reaches out to the masses. It eschews musical form and structure, meaning that it is very basic in style and there is little concern to aesthetics.

That's WHAT I don't like about pop music.

Often, people listen to music repeatedly (I'm very sure everyone here has a song in their iTunes that he/she has listened to at least 10 times). I myself am guilty of this (actually it's not something to be guilty about), seeing as my previous iTunes (before the hard disk disaster) had as #1 Brahms' Symphony #4 1st movement, THE Klieber recording, listened to >90 times if I'm not wrong (90 times for a piece that is 12 minutes long just means I'm mad =D).

Everytime I listen to a piece again I usually get new insights. The recent YO concert allowed me to hear Appalachian Spring once more, and I heard something very different from the version that I heard many times (and mind you the version I have is conducted by the composer.). That's the power of classical music that is obviously lacking in pop music. As many people have said before, pieces like Bach's Chaconne (from Partita no.2 in D Minor) can be heard so many times, yet every single time you listen to it you hear something new!

That's clearly something that pop music lacks. The lack of musical form and genius in pop music really warrants for less listening, simply because it wears off you. Yet many classical music pieces can be heard for millions of times and yet you never tire of it, simply because each listening is a discovery.

Another thing I can't stand personally, is the lack of innovation in pop music. Pop music keeps on using the same freaking harmonic progression (or at least very similar), just cause it sounds good. Confess, I'm pretty sure at least 1 or 2 top hits this year alone had a chord progression that reminds you of Pachabel right?

Yeah try hearing that same I V VI III IV I IV V chord progression anywhere in Mahler. Find it, and I'll pay you millions.

(maybe not.)

But you get the idea. Where is the Stravinsky in pop music? Where is the Wagner in pop music? Where is the Schoenberg in pop music? I hear no rhythmic inventions, no 3/16 5/16 2/16 bars unlike Le Sacre, there is no chromaticism (refer to bar 2, TWO, of Wagner's Tristan Prelude), there is simply little toying around with the whole idea of music! Where is 4' 33''? Where is Einstein at The Beach? There is really, A WHOLE LOAD OF REPETITION and no invention at all in pop music!

To be honest, a bit of a bad thing isn't really that bad, I acknowledge. But for me, I have chosen to not listen to pop music, and unless one can reply this with a convincing argument that can change me, it's more and more classical here.

Anyway, just a reminder. I am not against any other form of music per se, it's just that I am against pop. That's all. I don't mind jazz, blues, country, even heavy metal, because they all have more substance than pop. WAY MORE.

(Just that they don't fit me.)

Labels: Music

{ 6:23 PM }

Sunday, July 13, 2008.

ok i shall post about rage 13 using 2 sides of my brain - the musical side and the non-musical side.

non-musical side:
I was using this side of my brain after intermission, and that was when i went mad and randomly screamed some people's names out (coughHUIYAOcough). Clearly i enjoyed this part of the concert cause i just took it not too seriously (think rock concert) and enjoyed the energy that was oozing out from the audience and RIGE. so in that aspect my non-musical brain would like to thank RIGE for a splendid non-musical performance that seriously entertained me (without the music).

musical side:
To be honest, I seriously doubt my brain's capability from differentiating guitar music from standard classical music. So throughout the 1st half i was using the brain that was sooo accustomed to assessing classical music standards to grade the performance (and attempt to enjoy), and the results were not very ideal. I left for intermission with the (very wrong, i would say) mindset that guitar music is un-enjoyable, and thought of A LOT of aspects RIGE might had been able to improve in. BUT i seriously think this is unique to me alone (look i dont enjoy piano music as much too cause i'm not trained in piano and i think like the guitar, the piano has this overly-percussive sound that dampens the flow of musical lines - someone convince me otherwise), so maybe, JUST maybe, i shouldn't be using my musical side of my brain for EVERY musical concert I go to, cause I miss out on the more satisfying rewards.

Anyway I sincerely thought RAGE 13 was great, and kudos to EugeneGan and ChewKengChee + every other RIGE member (too many to mention) for entertaining me well!

Labels: Music, school

{ 11:41 PM }

Saturday, July 12, 2008.

ok. so i was listening to mahler 6 and its wonderful 3 hammer blows (refer to my pm).

so i decided to forward to the last bars of the last mvt.

All was soft, with lower strings, lower brasses and bassoon + timpani holding a chord.

So naturally cause everything was soft, what do people do? they TURN UP the volume.

bad move.

just right AFTER i turned up the volume, something bad happened.

turns out mahler made this symphony so tragic by BLASTING the "fate" theme 1 last time as the whole symphony drew to a close, symbolising the hero's loss to Fate.

and now my ears kinda hurt a little.

ouch.

Labels: Music

{ 10:47 PM }

Monday, December 10, 2007.

is so majestic.

oh ya, the PIPE organ (in case some people were stuck wondering how the stomach can be impressive).

i dont know why, but if ever any famous organist is ever going to give esplanade hall's organ a workout im going.

especially if it's saint-saëns' "organ" symphony (symphony no. 3).

it is so great, this piece of work, that i am still shocked why few orchestras play it.

yeah, translated, it means: i'm in love with it.

maybe i will give it a $2000 diamond, a big one.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

no one said anything about a diamond being perfectly cut right?

Labels: Life, Music

{ 10:22 PM }

Monday, November 26, 2007.

i came across the biology and physics behind perfect pitch while reading the news today. It mentioned the words "perfect pitch" and mentioned that perfect pitch is rare-1 in 10000 people have it.

So being lumpy, i did some research on perfect pitch (i did the test for fun, since i knew i had perfect pitch-http://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/ppsurvey.html). Anyway i found some interesting facts about perfect pitch-it actually can disappear.

and if you ever want to ask me about my perfect pitch test scores, it sucks. I'm below perfect pitch average, caused in part by people signing onto msn and causing me to listen to the wrong note. I'm generally not good at lower notes (since i'm not trained in lower-register instruments) and singing (arrgh choir. but they were good during REservED).

Anyway genetics is just that complicated. It's so uncertain, cause no one can actually tell for sure whether traits like this ever get passed down. Nature or nurture-that is the golden question in genetics.

Many other factors influence it too-speaking tonal languages like Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese gives one an edge, and learning an instrument before 6 years of age helps too. This should qualify the trait as continuous variation-affected by external factors.

But very obviously there is a big difference between perfect pitch people and non-perfect pitch people. Look at the range of scores on that site, and see the big gap. That clearly shows 2 distinct and different scores which do not overlap, and is a clear example of discontinuous variation (hah at least i still remembered stuff like that, after the crazy intensive bio-mugging i did before bio EOYs).

Overall, quite a fun thing to play around with-and anyway having perfect pitch is cool.

Labels: Music

{ 10:10 PM }

Monday, November 19, 2007.

this is a wonderful piece. I PROMISE.

The Lark Ascending

George Meredith (1828–1909)


HE rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
All intervolv’d and spreading wide,	5
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls
And eddy into eddy whirls;
A press of hurried notes that run
So fleet they scarce are more than one,	10
Yet changingly the trills repeat
And linger ringing while they fleet,
Sweet to the quick o’ the ear, and dear
To her beyond the handmaid ear,
Who sits beside our inner springs,	15
Too often dry for this he brings,
Which seems the very jet of earth
At sight of sun, her musci’s mirth,
As up he wings the spiral stair,
A song of light, and pierces air	20
With fountain ardor, fountain play,
To reach the shining tops of day,
And drink in everything discern’d
An ecstasy to music turn’d,
Impell’d by what his happy bill	25
Disperses; drinking, showering still,
Unthinking save that he may give
His voice the outlet, there to live
Renew’d in endless notes of glee,
So thirsty of his voice is he,	30
For all to hear and all to know
That he is joy, awake, aglow,
The tumult of the heart to hear
Through pureness filter’d crystal-clear,
And know the pleasure sprinkled bright	35
By simple singing of delight,
Shrill, irreflective, unrestrain’d,
Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustain’d
Without a break, without a fall,
Sweet-silvery, sheer lyrical,	40
Perennial, quavering up the chord
Like myriad dews of sunny sward
That trembling into fulness shine,
And sparkle dropping argentine;
Such wooing as the ear receives	45
From zephyr caught in choric leaves
Of aspens when their chattering net
Is flush’d to white with shivers wet;
And such the water-spirit’s chime
On mountain heights in morning’s prime,	50
Too freshly sweet to seem excess,
Too animate to need a stress;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin,	55
The best in us to him akin;
And every face to watch him rais’d,
Puts on the light of children prais’d,
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on sincereness pipes,	60
Though nought be promis’d from the seas,
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment.

For singing till his heaven fills,	65
’T is love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup,
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes:	70
The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine
He is, the hills, the human line,
The meadows green, the fallows brown,
The dreams of labor in the town;
He sings the sap, the quicken’d veins;	75
The wedding song of sun and rains
He is, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
And eye of violets while they breathe;
All these the circling song will wreathe,	80
And you shall hear the herb and tree,
The better heart of men shall see,
Shall feel celestially, as long
As you crave nothing save the song.
Was never voice of ours could say	85
Our inmost in the sweetest way,
Like yonder voice aloft, and link
All hearers in the song they drink:
Our wisdom speaks from failing blood,
Our passion is too full in flood,	90
We want the key of his wild note
Of truthful in a tuneful throat,
The song seraphically free
Of taint of personality,
So pure that it salutes the suns	95
The voice of one for millions,
In whom the millions rejoice
For giving their one spirit voice.

Yet men have we, whom we revere,
Now names, and men still housing here,	100
Whose lives, by many a battle-dint
Defaced, and grinding wheels on flint,
Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet
For song our highest heaven to greet:
Whom heavenly singing gives us new,	105
Enspheres them brilliant in our blue,
From firmest base to farthest leap,
Because their love of Earth is deep,
And they are warriors in accord
With life to serve and pass reward,	110
So touching purest and so heard
In the brain’s reflex of yon bird;
Wherefore their soul in me, or mine,
Through self-forgetfulness divine,
In them, that song aloft maintains,	115
To fill the sky and thrill the plains
With showerings drawn from human stores,
As he to silence nearer soars,
Extends the world at wings and dome,
More spacious making more our home,	120
Till lost on his aërial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

(Stedman, E. C. (Ed.). (1895). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895..)

after reading, now listen.

janine janson, bbc concert orchestra, "The Lark Ascending", Ralph Vaughan Williams, composed in 1914, a romance for violin and orchestra.

i hope you agree with me that ralph vaughan williams is a wonderful composer.

Labels: Music

{ 9:26 PM }

Friday, November 16, 2007.

Labels: Music

{ 9:53 PM }

Sunday, November 11, 2007.

I need help, DESPERATELY.

I saw this CD box-set about a month ago at Gramophone (when cbw zhiyi jeremysia and i were out celebrating end-of-eoys).

This is priced at $99.90, but when my SSO Friends card arrive, it's gonna be 10% off, which means each cd is approx. $11.24, which is not bad for a DG recording.

But some of the CDs aren't to my liking, especially CD2 (seeing as i already have both dvorák and rococo-variations) and cd1 (except schumann). I don't enjoy chamber music that much, so CD 4,5,6 won't be that enjoyable for me.

The 2 CDs which I truly want are CD3 and 7 (i'm a big shostakovich fan like DUH). Both ran out of print, and I still lack Shostakovich Cello Concerto 2 (i dont have shostakovich's full concerto set, cello concerto2 is lacking). His "Nutcracker" is internationally acclaimed, and so is his Shostakovich-5.

So should I get this set, seeing as I am on a tight budget?

PS I'm looking forward to IMRE attachment, but NOT the safety briefing (which is tmr).

Labels: Music

{ 7:37 PM }

Wednesday, November 7, 2007.

freak, i'm in love with rach 2!

now my thumb looks green. better than kai cheng, whose hand looks green.
yiyang kai cheng and i managed to spray paint 20++ stands within 3 hours. That's a Guinness world record lor, considering kai cheng took about 2 hours to create the template. It looks real cool.

i bought "college physics" since i lost my noob physics textbook and needed a better replacement, so might as well. I started mugging a little, but i STILL prefer chemistry.

anyway rach 2 is COOL. i finally relented after huiyao's endless persuasion, and started listening to piano music. To my surprise it is NOT bad. but no matter how many times tang huiyao persuades me to listen to pop music, i won't.

I shall shamelessly declare I do love Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2.

Labels: CCA, Music

{ 11:21 PM }

Tuesday, September 25, 2007.

a picture says a thousand words. 4 notes do much more than 1000 words-they paint out a person.

they all have sth in common. DSCH.

the best composer in the 20th century. Dmitri Shostakovich.
4 days. STRESS.

Labels: Music

{ 10:15 PM }

Monday, September 24, 2007.

最初日本語でしか書かないポスト！

最近、私はチェロ協奏曲を聞くようになりました。一週間前オチャードのHMVへ行ったら、〝ロココの主題による変奏曲　と　ドヴォルザークのチェロ協奏曲”というCDを見て、結局このCDを買いました。

演奏者：ロストロポーヴィチとベルリン・フィルハーモニー管弦楽団
指揮者：カラヤン

CDを買った時、チェロ協奏曲を聞くのが好きに始めました。

今、一番大好きなチェロ協奏曲はエルガーのチェロ協奏曲です。ほかにはショスタコーヴィチのチェロ協奏曲第1番が好きです。開始でショスタコーヴィチのチェロ協奏曲第1番は聞きにくいと思っています。でも、ショスタコーヴィチの音楽は聞きにくいです。

ショスタコーヴィチのチェロ協奏曲第1番
演奏者：ロストロポーヴィチ

ok some people want a translation, so here it is-
title: cello concertos
my first post written only in japanese and nothing else!

recently i have begun listening to cello concertos. a week ago i went to orchard hmv and to my surprise i saw this cd: "Tchaikovsky-Rococo Variations, Dvořák Cello Concerto", and i bought it.

performer(s): mstislav rostropovich, berlin philharmonic orchestra
conductor: Herbert von Karajan

After i bought this cd i started to like listening to cello concertos.
Now my most favourite cello concerto is elgar cello concerto. besides that i also like shostakovich cello concerto 1. It is hard to listen to at the start, but shostakovich's music are hard to listen to anyway.

the youtube vid is the 1st mvt of shostakovich cello concerto 1, soloist: mstislav rostropovich.

ps: who wants the cd? i can lend it to you-it's the best dvořák cello concerto/tchaikovsky rococo-variations recording around-3 greats, the conductor (karajan), the orchestra (berlin philharmonic), the soloist (rostropovich, the best cellist the world has ever seen)

Labels: Music

{ 9:38 PM }

Monday, September 17, 2007.

I am NOT good at emo-ing, i shall frankly say. I do not slash wrists, I do not stone and sob for an hour or two, etc, etc.

But I do emo through listening to some pieces which are so darn beautiful i don't know what to say.

3 pieces today, one being so famous most people don't know the original (intended) soloist.

1) not as touching but surely emotional. Just wait till you reach the octaves, and you will feel all the sorrow, emotion pouring out of Shostakovich's work. He wrote it during the worst period of his life, when he was persecuted and defamed, and forced to sleep outside his door for fear of the government.

Kogan's interpretation is fast, but highly charged. I still don't know how I can enjoy such a piece played so fast, only Kogan's one makes me enjoy it done fast.

Passacaglia (3rd mvt) from Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 (Op. 77/99), played by Leonid Kogan (pity i can't listen to the cadenza or the 1st 17 bars)

2) Fell in love with it yesterday, when I was Googling for more Rostropovich material and wondered why he never recorded elgar cello concerto. When I heard this i knew.

There was a reason why Rostropovich never recorded this piece even though it was a key piece in the cello repertoire. He said, there was no point when he could not do any more to it as compared to the best recording around, that by Jacqueline du Pré.

Horribly sentimental, my heart nearly broke listening to it for the 1st time.
Elgar Cello Concerto (Op. 85) 1st mvt, Adagio-Moderato, Jacqueline du Pré

3) everybody's favourite emo piece. schindler's list.

I can't post it here since the authors of the video decided to disable linking. I shall give the link however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueWVV_GnRIA
Wonderful soloist, Itzhak Perlman.

Labels: Music

{ 9:12 PM }